3.5 stars. Rating: PG, and quite needlessly, for action and mild rude humor
By Derrick Bang
Disney’s animated films haven’t
been such a much of late, with little of note since 2010’s Tangled. The studio’s traditional animation department has been
overshadowed by its Pixar colleagues, who’ve demonstrated a far better
understanding of good storytelling.
I therefore was delighted by the
opening act of Frozen, which evokes
pleasant memories of the Broadway-esque musical atmosphere delivered so well by
Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and the next several features
that contributed to Disney’s lock on the 1990s. The prologue of Frozen feels much like Beauty and the Beast, as it establishes
key character relationships and the underlying fairy-tale curse that will
propel the plot, and this new film also offers several lyrically clever tunes
by Tony Award-winner Robert Lopez (The
Book of Mormon, Avenue Q) and
Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Best of all — at least, at first
— these vocals are well integrated into the action, smoothly supplementing the
drama in a manner that feels natural.
Alas, that deft marriage of story
and song becomes increasingly contrived as we move into the second act, by
which point each new tune is greeted with resignation. (“Seriously? Another one?”)
Director/scripters Chris Buck and
Jennifer Lee — with an assist from Shane Morris on the story — also lose their
narrative’s dramatic heft as we skate into the climactic third act. The
suspense wanes, in part because their story lacks a stylishly conniving villain
in the mold of Gaston (Beauty and the
Beast) or Jafar (Aladdin); this
film’s simpering Duke of Weselton hardly qualifies.
(Yes, I’m well aware of the
climactic twist. But it’s too little, too late.)
Instead, the drama’s primary
threat emanates from one of the heroines, who undergoes a reluctant
transformation very much in the mold of Elphaba, in Wicked ... which may not be a coincidence, since that Broadway role
was played by Idina Menzel, who also voices the character under discussion in Frozen.
Déjà vu, anyone?
Fairy tale fans who fondly recall
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen
will be hard-pressed to find anything familiar in this narrative, except (to a
degree) the core premise. Not necessarily a problem, of course, as long as the
re-invention is similarly imaginative.
The film opens with a poignant
prologue that introduces Elsa and her younger sister, Anna, as children. Elsa
was born with the power to create snow and ice, and the two girls delight in
building snowmen and skating on the frozen floors of their palace home. But
Elsa cannot control her power, and when she unintentionally injures her sister,
their parents — the king and queen of Arendelle, a fairy-tale kingdom in Norway
— employ some magic to remove Anna’s memory of the incident, and of Elsa’s
gift.
Worse yet, Elsa is locked away in
her room, lest she wreak even greater havoc with the icy touch that becomes
stronger as the girls grow up. This enforced isolation haunts them, since Anna
doesn’t understand why her best friend has deserted her: a dynamic poignantly
rendered in the sweet song “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”
Ah, but the best intentions
always go awry in fairy tales. Eventually, via the machinations of fate, Elsa (voiced
now by Menzel) must assume the throne of Arendelle. This requires a public
appearance for both sisters, which couldn’t delight Anna (Kristen Bell) more;
she falls head over heels in love with Hans (Santino Fontana), a handsome young
royal from a neighboring kingdom, who attends the coronation in the company of
numerous other dignitaries (including the aforementioned Duke of Weselton).
Disaster strikes, with Elsa
branded a monster; she banishes herself to an ice palace of her own creation,
high in the surrounding mountains, while the citizens of Arendelle become ever
colder in the throes of an all-encompassing winter.
Determined to correct this dire
turn of events, and convinced that only she can calm her sister, Anna takes off
in pursuit. Along the way, she encounters a good-hearted outdoors-y lug named Kristoff
(Jonathan Groff) and his best friend Sven, a reindeer with the heart of a
Labrador. Sven may not talk, but his expressive features speak volumes; he’s
every bit as entertaining as the equally marvelous horse in Tangled.
This merry band soon is augmented
by Olaf (Josh Gad), a hilarious little snowman who likes “warm hugs” and bears
an uncanny resemblance to the snowmen Elsa and Anna once built, as little
girls. Olaf makes a hilarious sidekick, and Gad brings him to life with quite a
flourish. Credit to Buck and Lee, as well, for not over-using Olaf; he deftly
supports but never overshadows the stars or core storyline.
Indeed, the voice talent is excellent.
Bell, still fondly remembered as TV’s Veronica
Mars, brings considerable warmth and pathos to Anna, and the Disney
animators match her emotional depth with equally expressive features. (All the
human characters here have the large, animé-inspired
eyes that are so adept at melting our hearts.)
Menzel holds back until Elsa’s
reluctant epiphany — the decision to embrace her powers, rather than conceal
them — which is heralded by her power-ballad solo, “Let It Go.” Even then,
however, the character doesn’t quite catch fire; we grieve for the tragedy that
her undesired powers have created, but her resulting behavior isn’t all that
interesting, from a dramatic standpoint.
Groff’s Kristoff is engaging in
the “reluctant hero” mold so beloved by such tales, and Fontana is suitably
dazzling as the good-looking Hans; he and Bell strike winsomely romantic sparks
with their duet, “Love Is an Open Door.”
Chris Williams is a hoot as the
voice of a sidebar character, the good-natured owner of Wandering Oaken’s
Trading Post and Sauna, who suddenly finds himself with a surplus of summer supplies
during this most unexpected winter.
On the other hand, a needlessly
silly interlude with a troll clan is time-wasting filler, and the less said
about their song — “Fixer Upper” —
the better. With that sequence in mind, this 108-minute film could have used
additional tightening ... or perhaps the problem derives from spending too much
time with supplementary characters, at the expense of better delineating those
who matter the most.
I’m also a bit bewildered by the
chanted, foreign-language chorale that opens and closes the film, which I
believe is called “Vuelie.” It sounds decidedly Native American, perhaps Inuit;
whatever the intention, it’s an odd choice, given the rest of the score.
Although Frozen ultimately doesn’t quite live up to its promise, you’ll not
be disappointed by Get a Horse, the
6-minute short that precedes the film. This amazing cartoon at first appears to
be a “discovered” black-and-white short from the late 1920s, when Mickey and
Minnie Mouse first burst onto the scene, complete with long-gone friends such
as Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.
But once the villainous Peg-Leg
Pete enters the fray ... well, to say more would spoil the surprise. Let’s just
say this cartoon builds to a ferociously frantic and funny finale.
I wish Frozen were equally satisfying, although — mind you — it’s certainly
enjoyable, and definitely a family-friendly option for the holiday season. One
simply expects better, with Pixar’s John Lasseter serving as executive
producer.
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